Once you have new customers, don’t make the mistake of ignoring them. The sooner you engage in cross-selling additional accounts, the better chance you have of deepening relationships and improving retention.

The first 90 days after a new account is opened are crucial to a long-standing business relationship with that customer. Research shows early contact improves retention rates.

BEGIN BY WELCOMING THEM

When you provide your monthly new customer file to WordCom, we see to it that each individual who is new to your institution gets a welcome letter. It’s the first step in a three-touch Onboarding program.

Touch 1: This is a personalized letter whose main function is to make the new accountholder feel welcome and reinforce his or her decision to come to your financial institution. It mentions ancillary services like direct deposit, online banking, and any other appropriate messages.

Touch 2: Specific cross-sell product offer, based on the most-likely next product. As before, this is a personalized mail communication.

Touch 3: Another specific cross-sell product offer. Different from Touch 2, this personalized message promotes another of your products.

TIMING IS ESSENTIAL

The sequential mailings become part of a professionally-managed “rolling calendar” of mailings, where each month one group gets its first “touch,” another group gets its second, and a third group gets a final cross-sell effort.

All these touches take place within the first 90 days of account opening. All consist of a personalized letter, signed by the individual’s local branch manager. The outer envelope has a postage stamp to give the correspondence a more personal feel.

MEETS IMPORTANT OBJECTIVES

There are three objectives to the WordCom Onboarding program that are vital for your financial institution.
• Welcome new customers to your institution and help establish a long-term relationship
• Cross-sell additional products during the initial 90 days when interest is highest
• Lower attrition rates for these new accounts.

While the Onboarding program works for any size financial institution, results show a modest monthly mail drop to 500 new customers can produce a 5% to 10% response rate resulting in additional account openings, while “saving” another 7% of accounts.

Don’t ignore consumers once they become customers. Establish an early relationship with them and see more account openings and greater retention among these individuals. Contact us to see how the WordCom Onboarding program can help your financial institution.